XVlll 
INTRODUCTION. 
Many other Saints have received a similar recognition ; very 
often because the plants named after them come into flower about 
the time that their festivals are kept. Many of these names are, of 
course, like the festivals themselves, transferred from heathen deities 
to Christian saints ; others, however, are directly Christian in origin. 
Then the devil has come in for a large share of plant nomen- 
clature ; and in a great majority of cases this has arisen, as one 
would naturally suppose, from some real or reputed bad qualities 
possessed by the plants which bear his name. Allied to these, 
perhaps, are the names, a tolerably numerous class, in which the 
words “ Fairy ” and “ Mitch ” enter. 
A very interesting class of names are those which point to some 
real or supposed medicinal virtue, more frequently, perhaps, an 
imaginary virtue, formerly implicitly believed in by physicians, and 
even yet receiving much credit at the hands of the country people, 
who study the old herbals, and in the Xorth of England at any rate, 
collect vast quantities of medicinal plants. Thus the daisy was 
called Ban wort, because according to Turner “it helpeth bones to 
knyt agayne.” Knit-back and Back wort were names applied to the 
Comfrey, from a supposition that it was useful in cases of pains in 
the back. Coughwort, Eyebright, Squinancy Berry, Spleenwort, 
Mhitlowgrass, Pilewort, and hundreds of others, speak of old 
medicinal uses. Amongst this class of names the most interesting 
are those whicli illustrate the old doctrine of signatures, and of such 
Lungwort, Throatwort, Spleenwort, Pilewort, Jaundice Tree, may 
be taken as examples. 
A considerable number of names point to bits of folkdore, and 
strange superstitions. Fairies’ Horse, an Irish name for Senecio 
JacohcBCi, perpetuates the belief that certain plants if trodden upon 
will turn into horses and carry you about during the night ; Mother- 
dee, a naim^ applied in Cumberland to Lychnis diuriia, and in 
Cheshire to Torilis AnthriscuSy points to a supeistition amongst 
children that if they pluck the flowers death or some misfortune will 
happen to their parents. In Cheshire, however, whilst the name 
remains, the superstition appears to be forgotten. Of another plant, 
Veronica Chamcedrys, the same legend is related in Yorkshire, but 
